Dungeon Features
The floors of the Catacombs are littered with all sorts of useful and dangerous objects. Some are mundane, like torches or scaffolds; some are intriguing, like fancy chests and switches. Knowing how you can interact with your environment is essential to learning how to strategically and effectively progressing through the dark and dangerous depths of the Catacombs. There are a few basic types of objects with consumables, throwables and structures being the ones most likely to save your life or end it. Consumables Items such as potions, spellbooks, enemy corpses, and chests can be picked up and consumed by holding the grab button. Spellbooks Magic is learned from spellbooks scattered throughout the Catacombs. When consumed, spellbooks burst into unextinguishable flames, rendering them a 1-time use resource. Rats can steal spellbooks if chosen as Tomes (Poet ability), allowing for a new choice on what to do with the book. Spellbooks are flammable, and like other flammable materials will be destroyed if subjected to an open flame. May also burn if equipped as a Tome and the holder catches fire. Grumbuls leave behind Grumbul corpses, which turn into skeletons when consumed. Corpses can be thrown into pools to attract/distract Fishanhas. Grumbul corpses and skeletons can be looted for any equipped gear by using the "store" button. Skeletons can be consumed, but doing so will inflict damage. Undead Warriors' corpses will inflict poison when consumed. Unless the player has the Heavy Lifting boon, heavy corpses will reduce speed and jump capabilities, as well as reducing throwing range. Small corpses behave the same way any other small object would when thrown or held. When enchanted with the Plague spell, corpses will become Blighted. This has different effects depending on the type of corpse (more research needed). Throwables There are items strewn about the environment that are best used as throwing weapons. Secondary uses for these items are pouncing enemies by attacking while rolling, or, in the case of the torch and the lantern, grant extended visibility and provide with a non-reliable way to setting enemies on fire. When thrown with the Deft Throw perk, one can disarm a humanoid enemy. Rocks and Skulls These items are abundant, serving mainly to contribute to the atmosphere. Rocks are useful for repeated use in ranged combat and will become bloody if it delivers the final blow to an enemy. Bloody rocks and skulls can be thrown into pools to attract/distract Fishanhas, just as Grumbul corpses do. Long throws can also be used to draw an enemy away from a pack, or knock enemies into pits between platforms to make good use of the environment in tough combat engagements. Leaving these on pressure plates disables the mechanisms to which the plates are attached. A tricky corridor can be significantly improved by disabling retracting spikes and crushing traps, although the items used to disable the pressure plate may be crushed by the trap itself if placed before the trap has been triggered. When a Kid has the clumsy trait the kid may trip on skulls and rocks, when you trip you tumble forward. Torches The torches hanging on the walls are common and appreciated sources of light in an otherwise-dark environment, but they have more uses than increasing visibility. These can be grabbed off of walls and carried in a spare inventory slot in a pinch. Notably, when enemies struck by a lit torch have a chance of igniting, making torches an excellent way to handle Grumbuls and the undead. As expected, contact with water will extinguish a torch, while dropping a torch in a campfire will ignite it Torches are not hot enough to boil materials, but will ignite flammable gas. Structures Many of the features of the environment the player traverses can be interacted with to create dangers or opportunities. Doors Plain doors open to either side. They can be busted open by kicking, which sends any being on the other side flying. The brute force way can be faster, especially with your hands full, but the door will never be closed again. Only humanoids can open doors. Locked doors Marked with an animated key, these doors must be opened with a key found in another part of the level or with the Break spell. Then they become a normal door. Braziers These free-standing torches can be found all over the floors of the Catacombs, and while they cannot be picked up they can certainly be knocked over with a thrown object. Knocking over a brazier will start a fire; this burns any enemies or wood scaffolds in the area of effect, boils potions, and cooks food. Campfires These small fires can be safely walked over without risk of ignition, but they will boil potions and cook food. Levers They emit a signal once struck by a weapon or thrown object. Usually they cause a slim bridge to raise from [Features#Lava Pools|Lava. Hit a switch to make rooms easier to traverse, and hit it again to submerge the bridge (and everything on it) into the lava once again. Beware, some levers are linked to a Flamethrower trap. Wooden Scaffolds These wooden floors are strong enough to hold the weight of a player or an enemy, but not strong enough to support the weight of a crushing trap or a boulder. They will break away, causing the trap or boulder to continue on without resistance. Scaffolds will also ignite and burn away when in contact with fire. Handheld torches and lanterns are okay, but fire spells and overturned braziers will cause the wooden structures to collapse. Wooden Scaffolds can be broken with the break spell. Stairway This Looks similar to when walking through an exit. Much like the teleportation trap, it takes you from one place to another on the same floor almost instantly. Although the difference between them is that you choose to go through it, and can just as easily go back the way you came. So far this has been seen as early as floor 2. Movable objects Objects which player can move around to a certain degree, but are generally hard, undesirable or plain impossible to carry. Orb of Leveling By far the most coveted consumable, the Orb of Leveling allows for the advancement of either two stats or a stat and a skill. It's usually best to use the Orb immediately, but due to the healing it applies, it can be held on to and used later during runs with limited healing options. The Orb can be thrown quite far, and its levitation causes it to bounce around quite a lot. The Orb does not sink into liquids, and is not destroyed by fire. The Orb may be Corrupted by shedding blood onto it (i.e. pouncing Grumbuls or throwing it at Byats). This Corrupted Orb is an instakill to any enemy caught in its blast radius, and will not hurt the player. The Orb can still be consumed after it's corrupted, and will not leave the level (needs checking). Chests The dusty boxes that litter the halls can hold welcome rewards for those who can get to them. Their heft makes them less than portable, but they can be used like anything else to throw at lower enemies or hold down switches. Consuming them opens the chest and spills its contents, the drops being susceptible to physics (falling, tipping off torches, etc.). Chests come in two varieties: common and Fancy. Common chests are plentiful, containing coins and a random, but usually average, piece of equipment. Rare chests contain more coins and better equipment rewards, but are often guarded by several traps or pools of Fishanha. Like large corpses, chests severely limit movement. Corpses While in life the denizens of the Catacombs will kill whenever possible, in death the bodies of the slain are one of the most precious resources in Catacomb Kids. Eating meals is only the beginning: clever thinking can turn a corpse into a weapon to overcome enemies or a tool to navigate traps. The dead bodies of larger enemies are both consumable and lootable objects. Small enemies have a chance to leave behind a corpse that can be consumed or thrown at enemies. Small cooked corpses always recover some health, with diminished effects when consumed with the Messy Eater perk. Balls of Goo and Balls of Slime are especially useful as tools and weapons. When thrown into a wall, a Ball of Slime will act as a small platform or ladder that the player can hold onto and climb up. A Ball of Goo can be used as a trampoline or a way to repel enemies. Offensively, large enemies hit with a Ball of Slime will be temporarily blinded, and will be sorely handicapped in combat as a result. When cooked, balls of Goo and Slime will melt after a few seconds. They can also be bottled and then cooked, which produces interesting effects when they are used as throwing weapons. Generally, Balls of Slime are sticky and Balls of Goo are bouncy - as can be seen when a crush trap hits one of them. Blue Slimes are slippery; and when heated, they become explosive. Boulders Boulders are heavy, movable objects that can be interacted with using the grab button. Boulders crush anyone they land on, friend or foe. They can also be moved around by attacking them at the cost of increased weapon durability loss. Enemies horizontal to rolling boulders will take minor damage, but anything under a falling boulder will be crushed instantly under ordinary circumstances, similar to the crushing trap. Boulders can be picked up and thrown short distances with the heavy lifting stat boon. Hazards Potentially dangerous but quite obvious dungeon features: Water Pools Pools of water, both shallow and deep, are strewn about, and can hinder movement and cause suffocation. To complicate matters, dangerous Fishanhas often swim around and pounce at anything that gets wet nearby. Knocking a Grumbul into a pool of Fishanhas is almost always an assured kill. Treasure sometimes spawns underwater, but too many Fishanhas can make treasure hunting too dangerous. If a pool of water comes into contact with a zapped enemy, the water will zap all enemies that come into contact with it and cause damage over time. Knocking a zapped enemy into large pools of Fishanhas dispatch all threats quickly. Empty potion bottles can be dropped into water to become water bottles, which cleanse the palette. See Food for details on diet. Lava Pools Lava, as one would expect, is an extremely dangerous liquid that appears in quantities and arrangements similar to water. Lava pools emit light and cause severe fire damage, as well as igniting anything they contact. Potions dropped into pools evaporate and foodstuffs become cooked, but Byats will become charred quickly if cooked in lava. Lava pools often have Levers and bridges nearby, especially when near exit doors. The surface of a lava pool can be frozen to make platforms. Throwing any potion(except water) inside and waiting will permanently solidify the surface, making it safe to walk on. Ceiling Spikes These spikes aren't hidden so they will only hurt by jumping or getting thrown into them. They will do 3 damage. Floor Spikes They only hurt when you fall on them. They do 5 damage. Note: If you drop a Grumbul corpse or a Grumbul dies on floor spikes, you may use their corpse as a platform. This means you can drop through it and super jump off it normally. If you drop through it you will usually not take spike damage, unless a stray item under the corpse artificially increases the distance. http://prntscr.com/7su5bo Scythes Swinging back and forth, these will sever limbs or decapitate. Deals 4 damage. They can be avoided by rolling under, or - for the cheeky - jumping over it( between the blade and the anchor point). The trap can be destroyed altogether by casting Break on the anchor point. Doing so also produces the (Broken) Swinging Blade Trap item.